Sundar
Pichai,
chief
executive
officer
of
Alphabet
Inc.
Bloomberg
|
Bloomberg
|
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Alphabet
shares
climbed
to
a
record
on
Thursday,
joining
Microsoft
and
Meta,
which
have
continued
to
rally
since
reaching
fresh
all-time
highs
earlier
this
month.
Shares
of
Alphabet
rose
2.1%
to
close
at
$151.87.
Microsoft
rose
0.6%
to
$404.87,
closing
with
a
market
cap
over
$3
trillion.
Meta
gained
0.6%
to
$393.18.
Apple
remains
slightly
below
its
high
from
December.
The
rally
comes
ahead
of
quarterly
earnings
reports
next
week
from
the
mega-cap
tech
companies.
Investors
are
optimistic
that
a
boom
in
artificial
intelligence
along
with
cost-cutting
measures,
broader
economic
growth,
easing
inflation
and
the
prospect
of
lower
interest
rates
will
enable
the
companies
to
continue
producing
impressive
results.
Analysts
at
Mizuho
Securities
maintained
a
buy
rating
on
Alphabet
in
a
note
to
investors
this
week,
citing
the
company’s
“strong
position
in
the
search
and
advertising
market
and
sustained
history
of
innovation
and
AI
investments.”
Alphabet
is
expected
to
report
revenue
growth
of
12%
for
the
quarter,
according
to
analysts
surveyed
by
LSEG,
which
would
be
the
fastest
rate
of
growth
since
mid-2022.
Alphabet
shares
jumped
58%
last
year
and
are
now
up
8.7%
to
start
2024.
Meta
was
the
second-best
performer
in
the
S&P
500
last
year,
almost
doubling
and
trailing
only
Nvidia.
The
stock
is
up
11%
in
January.
Microsoft
mimicked
Alphabet’s
gains
last
year
and
is
up
almost
8%
so
far
this
year.
Microsoft
leads
Alphabet
in
the
cloud-computing
market,
though
it
still
trails
Amazon
Web
Services.
In
a
note
on
Wednesday,
Piper
Sandler
analysts
urged
investors
to
not
“sleep
on
Microsoft
Cloud”
even
as
the
company’s
AI
pursuits
capture
the
most
attention.
“We’re
excited
about
the
promise
of
Microsoft’s
AI
first-mover
advantage
but
acknowledge
this
is
still
small
at
1%
of
revenue
and
see
cloud
as
the
underlying
demand
engine
turbocharging
growth,”
wrote
the
analysts,
who
recommend
buying
the
stock.
Microsoft
has
eclipsed
Apple
as
the
world’s
most
valuable
publicly
traded
company.
watch
now
